Why Jews must dance on Simchat Torah during this year's holiday - opinion

The concept of dancing on Simchat Torah looms over many of us as an unthinkable, even dreaded, act.

This is the same holiday that was shattered last year in the early hours of October 7 by the murderous Hamas attack.

Many of the hostages taken that day remain in Gaza; more than 1,500 civilians and soldiers are dead; tens of thousands remain evacuated from their homes in border regions; and almost everyone in Israel is on high alert for the wailing of air raid sirens.

Amid all this, how can synagogues hold the traditional seven hakafot, rounds of circle dancing with the Torah, traditionally accompanied by song?

Yet, dancing is what we will do.

It is what we must do, in order to process the past, cope with the present, and create a hopeful future.

Whether, as many rabbis have suggested, we choose not to sing during the hakafot or to dedicate each hakafa to one of our most challenged communities: injured soldiers; hostages and their families; families who have been displaced; bereaved families; the well-being of our soldiers on the front lines, this year, those of us who can, need to engage in the hakafot.

Jewish history is filled with celebration during difficult times

In many ways, we are living in unprecedented times, yet within our history, we have many examples of celebrating during extremely difficult times.

On July 7, 1940, in the middle of the Holocaust, Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal was asked a question (Mishneh Sachir Orach Chayim, 214):

Members of his community who had finished the Tractate of Megillah wanted to know whether, during that horrific time, they should still celebrate the completion of the tractate with a siyum, a festive meal? If so, should the meal be one that the entire community is invited to, as is customary, or should it be limited to those who had completed the tractate? Perhaps, they suggested, the food served at the siyum should be simple, without fish or meat.

Rabbi Teichtal, who would be interred at Auschwitz and murdered on a train to the Mauthausen concentration camp five years after answering this question, responded that they should not minimize this great commandment of celebrating the completion of the tractate with a festive meal.

The entire community should be invited and whatever delicacies could be served should be; for, he said, there is no festive meal without meat and wine.

He concluded his response with the prayer that through such ritual celebrations, the harsh decrees upon the Jews would be nullified, and that such celebrations would help bring the Messiah.

This mingling of sadness and happiness also happens when we interject difficult memories of the past into our happiest moments.

We recall the destruction of Jerusalem at weddings and remember our biblical forever-enemy Amalek during the joy-filled Hebrew month of Adar.

This shows that even our most difficult moments are sacred; they bring value and perspective to the present and help us shape it, which is crucial in order to move forward into the future.

Simchat Torah may never be the same, but we cannot abandon the dancing even if there is a divide between our hearts and minds and the physical movements of our body and feet during the hakafot.

As we dance in the hakafot, we should remember how much light we have also witnessed over the last year: Families of fallen soldiers and murdered hostages have had the courage to stand up and recite kaddish, a prayer anointing the holiness of God; we continue to see the outpouring of volunteering and donations to support bereaved families, the families of those called for military duties and those evacuated from their homes; we have all heard stories of heroism by ordinary civilians on October 7 and throughout the past 12 months.

These are the parts of our past that we are dancing for. Amid all the devastation, there is still reason for gratitude, hope, and even happiness.

When we dance, we declare that Am Yisrael endures even though sadness accompanies us – as in the survivors’ mantra: “We will dance again.” Stopping would mean that our enemies win.

It is important to remember that the weight of loss is heavier for some: the families of the fallen, the hostages, the injured, those who have been evacuated from their homes, and those whose loved ones have been serving months of reserve duty away from home.

All that makes it all the more crucial that those of us who can find simcha in this shattered holiday should do so – for the sake of the greater community.

Perhaps, as difficult as it feels, we are celebrating and dancing for the future. If we want to celebrate Simchat Torah in the future, those of us who can, must celebrate it this year.

It is the only way we can help make this new year and future years better  – and rooted in the values of Jewish tradition. Hazak, hazak, venitchazek – Let us be strong and we will be strengthened.

The writer, a rabbi, is president and rosh yeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone, a network of 32 educational institutions in Israel.